Applying for a SIMPLER project

The SIMPLER infrastructure offers resources on the SNIC NAISS platform, Bianca, for users who have been granted access to SIMPLER data. This page contains instructions to approved SIMPLER users for gaining access to their data on the analysis platform.

Some background: This page is only for SIMPLER users (for more information see http://www.simpler4health.se/). To gain access to your SIMPLER data, simply follow the instructions on this page.

These instructions will help you:

1. Create an account on SUPR, the user and project management portal for the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing.
2. Create a project for your SIMPLER data.
3. Create a user account for the Bianca system, where your data will be accessible.
4. Log in to your project on Bianca.

1. Create an account on SUPR

The SUPR account is used for applying for a project on the server Bianca and administrating members in your Bianca projects. This account is tied to you as an individual.

Detailed instructions for registering a SUPR account can be found in Steps 1 and 2 on the following page: Applying for a user account

Problems with SUPR itself should be directed at support@supr.naiss.se.

2. Create a project

If you are not starting a new project, you may instead join an existing project as described in Step 3 in Applying for a user account.

A SIMPLER project includes both compute (Bianca) resources and storage (Castor) resources. Storage resources are divided between Castor /proj, which is backed up, and Castor /proj/nobackup, which is not backed up. Default values are provided when you create a proposal, but we encourage you to evaluate your actual needs when you apply. It is possible to adjust an allocation even after it has been granted, so just make your best guess when requesting resources.

Submitting a SIMPLER proposal

1. Go to SUPR. Log in.
2. Go to the SIMPLER round. Create a new proposal.
3. Complete the proposal and submit.
   1. Project Title should be the topic of your activity.
   2. Edit Basic Information.
      • Abstract should summarise your research plan,
      • Resource usage should include a description of the data you are going to store and an estimation of its size.
   3. Add co-investigators (if any).
   4. If someone other than the PI needs control over the project, assign a co-investigator the role of proxy.
   5. Adjust the resources requested in your proposal:
      1. Set the Requested Capacity for the Castor /proj resource to the amount of backed-up storage space you need (if greater than 128 GiB).
      2. Set the Requested Capacity for the Castor /proj/nobackup resource to the amount of non-backed-up storage space you need (if greater than 128 GiB).
   6. Submit the Proposal.

After the proposal is submitted, a member of SIMPLER staff will vet the proposal and hopefully approve it. A project is then created on the Bianca cluster, and you will be able to request an UPPMAX user account. Be aware that it takes some time for projects and accounts to propagate through the necessary mechanisms and show up in Bianca.

3. Create an UPPMAX user account

Once you have a SUPR-account and an approved project, then you can apply for an Uppmax account. This is described in Step 4 of Applying for a user account.

In order to log in to Bianca, you will need to activate two factor authentication according to the instructions found here.

Before you try logging in to Bianca, we recommend that you change temporary password you received by email. This is done on the server Rackham. You reach Rackham e.g. via the software Mobaxterm which you must download and install. Instructions are here.

The Bianca User Guide has more information about how the system is used.

The data you have requested for SIMPLER will be placed by SIMPLER staff in the special directory "dataset-simpler" which is located in, and unique to, your project.

Where to turn for support:

Problems with the Bianca system should be sent to UPPMAX via the SUPR support form, and issues with the data itself should be sent to simpler@surgsci.uu.se.